When we talk about workplace wellbeing, the conversation often starts with what employees need right now. Counselling? Coaching? Flexible working? Mental health support? ….. and so on.
All valuable things, but often delivered late, when people are already struggling and performance is dropping… When someone’s quietly burning out behind their desk.
We started to wonder if this the wrong way round.
What if resilience doesn’t begin with strategy? And what if it begins long before people ever show up to work?
Foundations for Wellbeing are laid early
We believe that real foundations for wellbeing, the kind that lasts, are laid in early, unfiltered human experiences, and not in professional development sessions.
That’s the idea behind our approach. And it’s one we’ve seen come to life through our work with organisations like Stagecoach Performing Arts and Tiny Toes Nursery, two very different environments that unexpectedly shaped how we help people reconnect with their confidence, resilience and sense of self at work.
What do performance & play have in common?
At first glance, you wouldn’t link a performing arts school and an early years nursery with corporate wellbeing. But look a little closer, and the lessons are surprisingly transferable.
Children in these spaces are given room to be. To try, fall, laugh, freeze, recover, and try again. They express themselves, even when they don’t yet have the words and learn how others are feeling. They take turns and speak up.
They step back.
They learn how to show up and be seen.
They do this in environments that feel safe, supportive, emotionally spacious. Where there is structure, yes, but no pressure to be perfect.
Space to build resilience
These moments may seem small, but they shape how we relate to ourselves and others. They’re emotional building blocks that last well into adulthood, if we let them.
Grown-ups need space too.
Fast-forward 20 or 30 years, and now you’re leading a team, juggling delivery, stakeholder expectations, inboxes that won’t quit. You’re pushing through, not because you want to, but because you think you have to.
We see this in our work with clients all the time. People aren’t always falling apart, most aren’t visibly struggling, they’re just not quite themselves.
Quiet questioning
Flat, disconnected and quietly questioning their value, or going through the motions in a role that once felt purposeful, but no longer fits.
The truth is, they’re not weak or underperforming.
It’s because somewhere along the way, they stopped checking in with themselves, not because they didn’t care, but because there was no space, no permission and no structure for it.
That’s what we aim to give back.
We don’t fix people. We create space.
We’re not here to deliver another webinar or drop another poster in the kitchen. Our approach isn’t flashy and is definitely not prescriptive.
It’s personal.
People need to pause
Most people don’t need fixing, they just need the right kind of pause.
So, how does it actually work?
Take our work with Stagecoach Performing Arts, for example.
The leaders in their business, franchise owners known as ‘principles’, are responsible for the operational side of things, as well as for supporting their teams and young people.
They’re performers and business leaders. They’re creative, committed, and incredibly busy. And like many leaders, they’re used to prioritising everyone else before themselves.
Chance to reflect
At first, they weren’t sure about adding ‘one more thing’ to their already packed diaries. But what landed was the invitation. This wasn’t training. It was a chance to reflect, to check in and to reconnect with their values and voice.
They responded in a way that surprised even them.
Some shared personal moments they hadn’t spoken aloud before. Others reflected on how disconnected they’d become from their own energy. Many said they hadn’t realised how much they needed the space, until they stepped into it.
And because the training approach was flexible, digital, and human, it worked.
Wellbeing alongside business strategy
It’s the same story with Tiny Toes Nursery, where a values-based approach to early years development inspired their leaders to consider how emotional literacy and Wellbeing could evolve alongside their business strategy.
In both cases, the results were clear: when people are supported to reflect, not just respond, they show up differently. For their work, their teams, and themselves.
Okay, but what about ROI?
This is a fair question, and we don’t shy away from it.
We measure the effectiveness of our work through a mix of:
• Personal scorecards that help individuals track their emotional wellbeing
• Pulse check-ins across programmes
• Narrative and qualitative feedback
• Observable behaviour shifts shared by clients and teams
Insight matters
We know that in a world of budgets and bottom lines, insight matters. But we also believe some of the most valuable outcomes are felt before they’re measured.
Greater confidence, better boundaries and reduced internal churn. A team that knows it’s safe to be real.
That’s when Wellbeing starts to mean something.
A more human counterbalance to AI.
Right now, businesses are grappling with a world that’s getting faster and more automated. Artificial intelligence is growing. Speed is everything.
And yet, what we’re seeing in real teams is the opposite. A need to slow down, to reconnect and to remember what makes us human.
AI can’t do this work
No AI can do that work. No chatbot can help someone feel seen.
That’s the real role of personal development now, not just as a skillset, but as an act of protection. For people. For culture. For the kind of workplaces, we actually want to lead in.
Final thought…
You don’t need to overhaul your culture to make a difference. Sometimes, it starts with one permission-giving sentence:
You’re allowed to take a minute.
We’re not here to teach people how to be better versions of themselves. We’re here to help them remember who they already are, before all the noise and expectations set in.
And that kind of work? It’s quietly radical.
About the author
Becky Davis is Managing Director at Fantastic People, which is a Wellbeing and Culture consultancy. It was created with a core belief that all people are made for more, that great wellbeing can be simple, and a little extra knowledge and curated thinking time can be the difference between highly effective, productive and happy employees and employees that suffer from presenteeism, low morale, continual attrition and general unhappiness at work.
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